Remember when Ufa was down 2-0 in the series and it took an amazing pad save in Double Overtime of Game Three by Lightning prospect Andrey Vasilevskiy on Novgorod's Jarkko Immonen just to keep them from the brink of elimination? That save may well have been the turning point of the opening round series, as Ufa has screamed back to a 3-2 series lead on the strength of their 4-2 Game Five win today. Center Denis Khlystov had 3 assists in the win for Ufa while Novgorod's Sakari Salminen had 1 goal and 1 assist for Novgorod in defeat.

Yugra laid the wood to Avangard Omsk in the opener of their second round Nadezhda Cup matchup, defeating the KHL power 5-1. Lightning prospect Nikita Gusev played 14:14 in the match and Yugra also got a helper from former Lightning draft pick Radek Smolenak in the win.

Longtime KHL star Danis Zaripov scored 16:35 into Triple Overtime to deliver Magnitogorsk a Game Four, 3-2 win over Vladivostok. Metallurg now has a commanding 3-1 lead in the series. Ex-Lightning defenseman Mike Commodore had a goal in defeat for Vladivostok. Vasily Koshechkin turned away 40 for the win.

Novgorod may live to regret their Game Three Triple Overtime loss to Ufa, as momentum in the series now wears a green jersey as Ufa won Game Four 4-2 to even the series at 2 a piece. Andrey Vasilevskiy turned in another sterling performance in the win, turning aside 39 shots, allowing his club to overcome a lopsided 41-20 shot disadvantage. Ex-NHLer Ivan Vishnevsky had a goal for Ufa in the win.

Andrey Vasilevskiy and Ufa outlasted Novgorod 2-1 in a 113:24 thriller to draw their first win of their opening round series against Novgorod. The young netminder turned aside 52 shots for the win. Ex-Senators second rounder Igor Mirnov had Ufa's first goal while Russian league veteran Alexander Stepanov drew potted the winning goal. Vasilevskiy has played well in his rookie campaign as a KHL playoff starter, allowing just 5 goals in 3 games.

Nikita Gusev was -1 in 15:28 in Yugra's 1-1 tie with Amur Khabarovsk. Yugra wins their Qualification Round matchup over Khabarovsk by going 1-0-1, and will move on to face Omsk in the next round of the "best of the worst" postseason tournament of KHL teams that have failed to make the playoffs.

Ex-Capitals draft pick Oskar Osala had a couple of assists in Magnitogorsk's 5-3 win over Vladivostok in Game Two of their opening round series. Ex-Red Wings farmhand Francis Pare also had a goal for Metallurg. Vladivostok got a goal in defeat from former Devils first rounder Nicklas Bergfors.

Ex-Phoenix first rounder Krys Kolanos scored the game's only goal as Novgorod defeated Ufa 1-0 in Game Two of their opening round series. Andrey Vasilevskiy was the recipient of the hard-luck loss, stopping 17 of 18 in the contest.

Nikita Gusev followed up on a hot finish to his KHL regular season with an even strength goal and a power play assist as Yugra doubled-up Amur Khabarovsk 4-2. The Lightning prospect played 14:43 in the match. Yugra also got a helper in the game from former Lightning draft pick Radek Smolenak.

Nikita Gusev capped his first full season at the KHL level with a game winning, power play goal to lift Yugra to a 2-1 upset win over SKA St. Petersburg. Gusev played 11:24 in the match. He finishes the regular season with 8 goals after averaging just 9:58 of ice time in 44 games.

Jaroslav Janus' season ended with a whimper as Slovan fell 3-2 to Zagreb. Ex-NHLer Jonathan Cheechoo assisted on the game-winning goal just 13 seconds into the final period of the match. It was Cheechoo's second helper of the game. Ex-Lightning defenseman Kurtis Foster also scored for Zagreb.

Here's how the KHL playoffs shape up for the Lightning's prospects:

In the Western Conference, Slovan Bratislava (Jaroslav Janus) finished 11th, 17 points out of the money and will not season the postseason.

In the Eastern Conference, the late season heroics of Vasily Koshechkin allowed Metallurg Magnitogorsk to clinch the 1st seed in the conference by 8 points over divisional rival Ak Bars Kazan. Theyll face 8th seed Vladivostok, which made the playoffs in their expansion season.

Ufa (Andrey Vasilevskiy) will get the test of being the 4th seed and will square off against 5th seed Novgorod. Both teams finished with 94 points, but Ufa got the tiebreak.

Like Bratislava, Khanty-Mansisysk (Nikita Gusev) finished 11th in their conference and will not make the KHL's postseason tournament. They finished 14 points behind Vladivostok for the final playoff spot in the East.

Make it back-to-back shutouts and back-to-back 1-0 wins for Vasily Koshechkin as he and Magnitogorsk defeated Kazan today 1-0. Czech forward Jan Kovar scored the game winner for Metallurg. Koshechkin is 5th in the KHL in save percentage and leads the pack in shutouts.

Yugra continued to look unimpressive emerging from the Olympics break as they were again crushed, this time by Mytischi by a score of 5-1. Ex-Lightning forward Evgeny Artyukhin had a helper in the win for Mytischi. Nikita Gusev played 17:50 in the loss.

Vasily Koshechkin was perfect, even stopping three of three in the penalty shot session, in Magnitogorsk's 1-0 win over Dynamo Moscow. Ex-Lightning draft pick Marek Kvapil was among the unlucky Dynamo shooters nullified by Koshechkin in the skills competition.

Only slightly less impressive than Koshechkin's shutout, Andrey Vasilevskiy turned aside all 23 shots he faced to deliver Ufa a 1-0 win over Kazan. Longtime KHL star Konstantin Barulin turned aside 27 shots at the other end of the ice for Kazan in defeat.

Jaroslav Janus turned away all three shooters he faced to deliver Bratislava a 4-3 shootout win over Minsk. Ex-NHLer Miroslav Satan had a goal in the match for Slovan. Ex-Lightning defenseman Lukas Krajicek had a pair of helpers in defeat for Minsk.